This book was translated from the old French oddly, perhaps too literally, and the result is that sometimes the fact that it used to be in verse form gets in the way of the story. Most of the time, though, the stories are the fun and gripping legends Arthur-enthusiasts will love.

I found the book to be fascinating, even for a person without a background in the classics. I felt the translation was fine, overall a very smooth read. I would highly recomend it to anyone with an interest in Arthurian legends.

First things first ... this book does NOT have 57 pages...it has over 360 pages. (I hope this mistake hasn't deterred any potential buyers!)

There aren't that many introductory grammars of Old French lying around in English, and fewer yet that don't assume a thorough knowledge of Latin. (Einhorn's Old French is the only other one that comes to mind).

This excellent book is composed of 23 lessons. Each lesson begins with a passage in Old French, and is followed by a section with the appropriate grammar and syntax. Each lesson ends with a section on phonology; they trace the evolution of of the Vulgar Latin sound system into Old French. I think for students of Romance philology, these are worth the price of the book by themselves.

The first 15 lessons cover Le Fresne, by Marie de France, in the standard Francien dialect; later lessons introduce texts in the Anglo-Norman and Picard dialects.

The only drawback that I see in this book is the lack of vocabularies for the individual lessons. Every form of every word used in the lesson readings is included in the glossary in the back, so working through the reading involves looking up EVERY LITTLE WORD that you don't know in the dictionary in the back. Great way to internalize the grammar and learn the vocabulary, but not everyone will have the stomach for this tedious word-by-word torture.

A knowledge of Latin certainly wouldn't hurt, but for the seriously motivated student, this book is the best thing going.